Promise Me This
by moonstruck583
Summary: Felicity and Diggle's plane to Lian Yu crashes. Basically, Season 2 doesn't exist, except for the first minute and thirty-four seconds. This was a plot bunny I could not get out of my head.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Felicity and Diggle's plane to Lian Yu crashes. Basically, Season 2 doesn't exist, except for the first minute and thirty-four seconds. This was a plot bunny I could not get out of my head.

Disclaimer: If I owned _Arrow_, I would make Stephen Amell do the Salmon Ladder in every single episode. Let's be serious. Also, the song "Promise Me This" is from Pancho's Lament. I used to be obsessed with Dawson's Creek. It is the song that was playing when Pacey watched Joey sleep. *hangs head in nerdy shame* It fits the Olicity ship surprisingly well.

CHAPTER ONE

In hindsight, Felicity should have listened to her gut feeling when they booked the final arrangements from Beijing International Airport to Lian Yu.

The pilot himself hadn't been all that encouraging, and the booking agent hadn't been very forthcoming on the details when Diggle pressed for his flying credentials and experience.

The plane… to say that the plane was old would be an understatement. It was rusty. Felicity could have sworn she spotted a few bullet holes. And when they climbed aboard, it was clear that the plane they had chartered was not exactly meant to transport human passengers.

But she and Diggle were not billionaires, able to secretly hire the family pilot to drop them off on an island in the middle of the North China Sea. They had _barely _managed to scrape together enough funds, using a combination of credit cards, for the trip in the first place. And they were desperate.

They had both ignored their instinct.

And so, when the pilot began yelling in Mandarin as the plane shook, before taking a steep nosedive, Felicity and Diggle both looked at each other, not altogether unsurprised.

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Felicity's eyes fluttered open. All she could see was a light, burning so brightly that it forced her eyes closed again. This repeated for awhile—open and close, open and close… until finally her eyes adjusted to the harsh light beaming down on her.

For a brief moment, as she wavered in and out of consciousness, Felicity wondered if she was dead. Then, the searing pain hit. She couldn't focus, the pain seemed all encompassing.

_Definitely not dead, then._

Felicity groaned. She felt groggy, and had a massive headache that felt remarkably like the one horrible hangover she had after she had finished finals.

She stared up at the bright light, her eyes blinking, for quite some time, before coming to the realization that the bright light was the sun… and then she remembered.

She remembered throwing up as the plane took a sharp nosedive descent. Diggle had grabbed her, strapping on a parachute, and bailing out. She remembered screaming -

"Felicity!"

Oh, the screaming was coming from her.

She closed her eyes again, attempting to take deep breaths, reminding herself that a panic attack on a deserted island was _not_ going to help. When she opened her eyes, Oliver was leaning over her.

She stared at him, wide eyed, mindlessly reaching out for any part of him she could, needing proof that he was real.

"_Oliver_," she breathed.

Absently, she went to adjust her glasses, and frowned. "My glasses-"

"You lost them on the way down," Oliver told her.

"Diggle!" Felicity exclaimed, trying to sit up.

Pain seared through her leg and lower back, so severe that she gasped, letting out a small cry.

Oliver placed his hand on her hip, stilling her. "Diggle is fine," Oliver assured her. "He's getting the first aid kit."

Felicity frowned at him. "Why?"

Her eyes followed Oliver's as he looked down.

_Oh._

She stared at her right leg, which was covered in blood. Then, she noticed the deep, open cut right extending across her thigh, right above her kneecap, and mercifully passed out.

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When Felicity woke the next time, there was less light. There was a breeze, and it was… cooler. She felt groggy and numb.

There were also noises. Oh. Voices.

Felicity groaned.

"Don't move," a voice told her hastily, when she tried to sit up.

Felicity tried to focus on where the voice was coming from. It was hard, at first. Everything was hazy.

"Oli… Oliver?" she asked, her eyes squinting at the figure next to her.

"Yeah," he said, his voice gruff. "It's me."

"Digg…" she said, trying to sit up again.

"On your other side, Felicity," Diggle told her, pressing his hand on her shoulder. She turned towards his voice, relaxing.

"I feel funny," she told them.

"You had a deep cut on your right leg. It just missed your kneecap," Oliver told her. "Diggle and I had to give you something to numb the pain while we stitched you up. You'll have another scar. I'm sorry."

Felicity smiled. "Another scar!" she said happily.

She squinted at Oliver, and frowned. He did not look happy about her scar. In fact, he looked particularly _unhappy_. Which, for Oliver, was saying something.

"You shouldn't have come here," Oliver said, his voice tense, turning towards Diggle. "How could you let her come here?"

"Don't yell at him!" Felicity told him angrily, before Diggle could defend himself. "It was _my _idea! I was going, with or without him! Diggle wanted to let you stew in your own misery!"

She blinked rapidly, furiously swiping at her eyes. She _would not _cry in front of Oliver. Even if she was still groggy and loopy.

"We would have called," Diggle said flatly. "But the island doesn't exactly have reception, does it?"

Oliver's eyes narrowed. "You were supposed to keep her safe. "

"You weren't supposed to leave," Diggle shot back.

"_Please_," Felicity begged, hating how small her voice sounded. "Don't fight. I'm… I'm so tired."

Diggle and Oliver turned their attention towards her. Oliver touched the back of his hand to her forehead as Diggle gently touched her right leg.

"The herbs haven't quite worn off yet," Oliver told her gently. "You should go back to sleep."

Felicity nodded weakly. "No more fighting," she said sternly.

"No more fighting," Diggle repeated, squeezing her hand as he helped her adjust her position.

"No more fighting," Oliver promised. He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

Felicity opened her mouth to speak, but yawned instead.

"Sleep, Felicity," Oliver said softly.

Felicity nodded, allowing herself to close her eyes, feeling surprisingly content for being injured and stranded on an island called Purgatory.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note:** So, I have this tendency to fall in love with shows that are cancelled after a season or two. And so when I write fan fiction, I am not expecting any kind of feedback. I do it because I have a nerdy brain, and my nerdy brain has really weird nerdy dreams, and I need to get it all out before I start telling normal people about my weirdness.

ANYWAYS, thank you for your fabulous feedback! I should warn you all that I am horrible, horrible at updating. I will try to be better. And also, this started out as a one-shot and I haven't quite found the plot for it yet.

**Disclaimer: **"He has the emotional capacity of a teaspoon"—Harry Potter, obviously.

CHAPTER TWO

"You don't happen to have instant coffee on this island, do you?" Felicity asked hopefully after her third yawn.

The corners of Oliver's mouth turned upwards into a small smile—the first she'd seen since they'd been stranded. "No coffee," he told her, the smile disappearing almost as quickly as it had appeared.

He handed her a mug of tea instead. Felicity glared at it. It had been three days since they had crash-landed on Liam Yu. Felicity had spent the first day and a half in and out of consciousness, and the second day unable to move without assistance.

She had been too preoccupied to worry about surviving without coffee.

"My caffeine withdrawal is not going to be pretty," she warned them both, before tipping the mug back to take a drink.

"We shouldn't be here too long," Diggle told her confidently. "Carly knows I'm gone. When we don't come back, she'll start looking."

"A.R.G.U.S. does a sweep of the island every month," Oliver said absently.

"We just missed the last one."

"A.R.G.U.S. knows about LIan Yu?" Diggle asked quietly, surprised.

Oliver regarded him curiously. "You seem to know a lot about A.R.G.U.S., Diggle."

Diggle hesitated. "My ex-wife works for them," he said with a sigh. "She was my inside contact."

Felicity blinked, wondering if it was possible that Oliver's magic herbs included a side effect that made her hallucinate crazy conversations.

Diggle and Oliver stared at each other.

When neither of them chose to be anymore forthcoming on the topic, Felicity huffed in annoyance.

"You have an ex-wife?" She demanded, deciding to go with that first.

Diggle sighed again. "Lyla Michaels," he told them, his voice soft and far away. "We met in Afghanistan and got married there. After my second tour, we rotated back Stateside… but our marriage couldn't survive the peace. I signed up for a third tour, and Lyla entered A.R.G.U.S.."

"And… A.R.G.U.S. operates a maxim security prison on Lian Yu? And you know this…how, exactly?" Felicity asked after a moment's pause, when it was clear Diggle wasn't going to go into any more detail.

It was Oliver's turn to sigh. "Because I used to work for A.R.G.U.S."

"_What?"_ Felicity asked. "But… how? When? You were—you weren't on this island the whole time, were you?"

"No," Oliver said shortly. "I wasn't."

She didn't like the far off look she saw in him now. It meant that he was remembering. And the majority of Oliver's memories were not happy ones.

"Did you know Diggle's ex-wife?" Felicity asked quietly, feeling like she already knew the answer.

"We have a complicated relationship," Oliver said enigmatically.

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Of course you do," she mumbled.

The tone of his voice meant that he was done discussing it for the time being, and since Diggle didn't seem to want to know the details of Oliver's complicated relationship with his ex-wife, Felicity didn't press it.

She looked down at her leg, her eyes tracing the length of her stitches.

"We have to take those out today," Oliver told her.

She looked up just in time to see him avert his eyes, and she tried to ignore the hurt surfacing within her every time he did so. He hadn't met her eyes since he'd stitched her up.

She had no idea what it meant, and she was too weak and too tired to call him out on it. And even if she had been in a more coherent state of mind, she doubted Oliver would talk about it with her.

He was avoiding her.

"Can we…" she closed her eyes. "Can we just…. Wait until the end of the day?"

"Okay," he said softly, nodding in agreement.

He had turned his back towards her, and she watched him gather his bow and arrow. He stuffed a canteen in one pocket and a knife in the other.

"I'm going to patrol," he said gruffly.

"I can go, Oliver," Diggle spoke up, as he had done for the past three days.

Felicity sighed. "Just let him go, Digg," she told him.

She watched, unimpressed, as Oliver's shoulders tensed with guilt, noticed the slightest hesitation before he stepped forward. He exchanged a _look _with Diggle, the one where Diggle was telling him off without actually saying any words.

Then, Oliver left, as he had done every morning for the past three days. And Felicity knew she wouldn't see him again until late in the afternoon.

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Diggle shook his head. "Idiot," he muttered under his breath, after Oliver had disappeared.

He turned towards her. "He makes it _really _hard to like him," he said, like he couldn't believe it.

Felicity grinned. "He does have the emotional capacity of a teaspoon," she agreed.

Diggle snorted.

She scooted over as Diggle sat down next to her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned against him as he planted a kiss on the top of her head.

They sat in companionable silence. There was no one that Felicity trusted more than Diggle. His friendship had surprised her. Before, they had Oliver between them. And they were friends… but they were friends who had spent most of their friendship making sure their mutual friend didn't end up dead.

When Oliver left, they had continued showing up at the Foundary every night… determined to find him. When they weren't searching for Oliver, Diggle had been rebuilding the Foundary, and Felicity had been upgrading the technology. Somewhere in between, they had forged a friendship beyond the Foundary, beyond worrying about Oliver.

"I'm sorry I never told you about Lyla," Diggle said finally, his voice gruff and deep.

"She's the woman in that picture, isn't she?" she asked, remembering the framed picture on Diggle's desk.

"Yeah."

"She's pretty," Felicity commented.

Diggle gave a short nod of agreement.

She had a million questions she wanted to ask him—she always had a million questions about _everything_. She was beginning to think that The Powers That Be had a strange sense of humor, to place her in between two complicated men who kept a million secrets and memories. It was extremely aggravating.

"Do you…" Felicity hesitated. "Oliver and Lyla knew each other, didn't they?"

"Looks like it," Diggle said, and the only sign that he was perturbed by this new knowledge was the slight clench in his jaw.

Diggle sighed. "Felicity…" he began. He paused, searching for the right words. "If Oliver worked for A.R.G.U.S…. while he was on Lian Yu… while he was presumed dead… he probably didn't do so willingly. A.R.G.U.S.'s method for recruiting is… unorthodox."

Felicity swallowed. "Digg… what _happened _to him here?"

"I don't know," Diggle said. "But I have a feeling that the longer we're stranded here, the more we'll find out."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: ** Alright. So for the purpose of this story we're going to pretend that Oliver wasn't living in an airplane hanger. And also, Oliver hasn't told Felicity about his Bratva tattoo, but Felicity's a genius with mad hacking skills… we're going to pretend she discovered this bit of knowledge on her own.

**Disclaimer: **"emotional capacity of a teaspoon"—still Harry Potter. But it fits poor Oliver quite well.

**CHAPTER THREE**

It was just before dusk when Oliver returned to the Tree House, as Felicity secretly had begun to call it. She wasn't entirely sure if their humble abode had a name—but it reminded her of a tree house. The shelter Oliver had taken refuge in was perfectly strategically positioned… Felicity doubted that was a coincidence. The shallow cave was a bit of a climb off the beach, camouflaged amongst a canopy of trees, behind a small waterfall that dropped into a pool of fresh water. For a place that was so unsettling, it really was quite beautiful.

Diggle had just started a fire and Felicity was mixing some herbs for tea, when Oliver entered with a dead rabbit pierced through one of his arrows, skinned and cleaned.

"Dinner's ready," he announced, deadpanned.

"Not quite," Diggle said, helping Oliver transfer the animal to the wooden pole they used to roast meat. "How long do we cook it for?"

"About an hour," Oliver told him. "Make sure to rotate it evenly."

He walked over to Felicity, who had her back turned against them, working over one of the crates filled with supplies.

"I have something for you," he said, standing next to her.

Felicity looked up at him. "Is this where you apologize?" she asked, unimpressed. "You know, Oliver, just because you on occasion have saved my life does _not _give you the right to give me emotional whiplash."

Oliver fidgeted, stuffing a hand into the pocket of his cargo shorts. Because only Oliver Queen would bring designer brand cargo shorts with him to an island called Purgatory.

He pulled out a branch, decorated with a fruit that looked like cherries. "I have a lot to apologize for," he agreed, and Felicity hated how easily her heart softened. "But I need to apologize to Diggle, too, and I'd like to do it over dinner, if that's okay."

Felicity found herself nodding.

"When I was first marooned here," he continued, twirling the branch in his hand. "I would have not survived without Yao Fei. He taught me how to hunt… … find clean water… build shelter… and distinguish edible plants from poisonous ones. Do you know what this is?"

Felicity inspected the branch. "They look like cherries."

Oliver's eyes twinkled. "That's what I thought, too," he told her. He paused. "They're coffee berries."

Felicity's eyes shot up to meet his. "You…" she said slowly. "You brought me _coffee _berries?"

"You can eat them as is," Oliver said, popping one in his mouth. "You've got to be careful to not bite the seed… you could break a tooth. But Yao Fei also taught me how to turn them into coffee. And I thought… since we're going to be here for a while, that I could teach you. If you wanted."

Felicity couldn't help it. She let out a small noise between a squeal and a squeak, and threw her arms around him. She felt his shoulders drop slightly as his hands wrapped around her waste, hugging her back.

"I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely. "I know I've been… difficult."

Felicity thought that this was probably the most obvious statement ever, but she squeezed him tighter anyway.

"You always find a way to redeem yourself, though," Felicity told him warmly.

She felt Oliver smile against her cheek, and the stubbles of his unshaven beard scratched against her skin for a brief second before he pulled away from her. The smile was gone, but his face was more relaxed than she had seen it in the entire time they'd been on the island.

"When Oliver's done groveling," Diggle called from the fire. "I could use some help with dinner."

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The tension had dissipated with Oliver's peace offering. Of course, the peacefulness didn't last long.

Oliver waited until they were all around the fire, settling into their meal, before he brought up A.R.G.U.S. again.

"Digg…" he began, his voice hesitant and quiet. "How much do you want to know about how I know Lyla?"

Felicity stopped eating. Because _that _was a loaded question, and she knew what the implication was with the way he had asked it… and she _definitely _couldn't break up a no-holding-back fight between a special ops war veteran and a former Russian mafia member.

"I think you probably already know the answer," Diggle responded, his voice hard.

Oliver nodded. "I spent a year and a half off the island, in Hong Kong. How I arrived there is… complicated. A long story… for a different time," he told them. "I was recruited by the leader and trained as a member of the Suicide Squad for A.R.G.U.S."

"That… is not a happy name," Felicity said weakly.

"They undertake high-risk missions for A.R.G.U.S.," Oliver said, ignoring her. He met Diggle's eyes over the fire. "Lyla… figured out that I wasn't there willingly. She managed to broker a deal with the leader… to return me to Lian Yu."

Felicity privately thought that this was the vaguest explanation she had ever heard.

Oliver sighed. "I know… I know it's not the best explanation," he said apologetically.

"I know A.R.G.U.S. works, Oliver," Diggle told him. "The less we know, the safer we are."

"You aren't safe here," Oliver said shortly. He stood up and began to pace. "I thought that after everything you already knew about this place… I never expected the two of you to actually _come _to Lian Yu. And I know… I shouldn't have left. I just… I needed _time_. I couldn't stop any of it. I couldn't stop Malcolm. I couldn't stop the Undertaking… I couldn't stop any of it. I _failed_. And now… the tow of you are here, on Lian Yu… and if I couldn't protect Tommy… the longer we are on this island, the more dangerous it will be… and how am I supposed to protect you, when I've failed at everything else?"

The words came tumbling out of him, his voice growing louder, punctuating all of the horrible things that had happened.

Felicity and Diggle shared a look, silently agreeing that now was _not _the time to tell him about Isabel Rochev and the hostile takeover of Queen Consolidated, which was probably well on its way to completion.

"I thought," Diggle said, after Oliver had finished. "That it was understood… that Felicity and I knew what we were getting ourselves into when we signed on. I thought _you _understood you weren't alone."

It sometimes amazed Felicity, the way Diggle could speak with such authority, with such a calm voice.

Oliver stopped pacing.

Felicity stood up, taking his hand in hers. She gave it a gentle squeeze. "Tommy's death was _not _your fault," she told him firmly. When he didn't look at her, she pressed on. "And _we_ couldn't stop the Undertaking. But we aren't the ones that destroyed it. That was Malcom Merlyn. And it was _not _your fault that Malcom ended up an insane serial killer. _We _were the ones who decided to come and find you. Because, even though you try your best to make it hard to, we care about you. And we believe in you. It's time you start letting us."

Oliver was quiet for a long moment. Felicity stared at him anxiously, her mind running through the various reactions he might take in response to her long-winded speech, coming up with numerous counter-arguments to use against him.

"Okay," he said quietly.

Felicity blinked. "Okay?" she asked, apprehensive. "I… expected more resistance."

"You and Diggle are right," he said in a resigned voice. "I need to start letting you in."

"No need to sound happy about it or anything," Felicity told him, rolling her eyes.

"Cut the guy some slack, Felicity," Diggle said gently, his voice teasing.

"He does have the emotional capacity of a teaspoon."

Oliver glared at them, and Felicity couldn't help but grin as Diggle chuckled quietly.

She knew that Oliver and Diggle would probably sort things out the moment they were certain she was asleep, and even though it aggravated her that they would keep it from her, she wasn't quite sure how she felt about A.R.G.U.S…. and she had an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of her stomach that the secrets they were keeping from here would come to a head. Eventually.

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	4. Interlude

**Author's note: ** Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews! This is a short little piece… not long enough to be its own chapter. But I figured you all might want a nice little Olicity moment. I told you, this thing is slow-burn.

INTERLUDE

True to Oliver's word, they waited until after dinner to remove Felicity's stitches. Diggle had wanted to take advantage of the remaining sunlight and wash up, leaving Oliver to tend to the wound.

Removing stitches, it turned out was a relatively painless, if not time-consuming, procedure. Oliver was meticulous with his care. Felicity, unable to actually _look _at the stitches as they were being taken out, instead watched Oliver.

He worked in silence, his jaw set, and full of concentration. It constantly amazed Felicity that he could be so gentle, still, after everything he had been through.

She had read about people who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder… what happened to people who were forced to kill another human being, how they change on a fundamental level. She hadn't known Oliver prior to his rescue… but he had been in the news headlines enough that she had at least _known _about him.

She remembered being shocked the first time she met him. The image she had in her mind, the carefree, admittedly attractive playboy billionaire did not exist. The Oliver Queen she had met was serious, his smile never quite meeting his eyes… but she had trusted him immediately.

"What was your first scar?" She asked without thinking.

Oliver's hand froze above her leg. He was quiet for such a long moment that Felicity thought that perhaps he wasn't going to answer her.

"My first day on the island," Oliver said finally. "Yao Fei shot me with an arrow, right through my chest."

"Yao Fei?" Felicity asked, confused. "I thought he saved your life."

The corners of Oliver's lips quirked into a small smile. "He shot me to protect me," he told her, his voice fond as he remembered. "There was a bit of a language barrier, at the beginning."

Felicity shook her head. How Oliver could smile at the memory of someone shooting him was beyond her.

"You're amazing," Felicity said softly.

Oliver let out a short, bitter laugh. "There are a lot of people who have a very different opinion."

"They're wrong," Felicity said, and she spoke with such conviction that Oliver fidgeted.

"Felicity…" he began uncomfortably.

"I know you don't believe it," Felicity pressed on. "But Oliver… you went through _so much_. Not many people could go through what you did, and still come out of it a good person."

"I'm not a good person, Felicity," Oliver said, shaking his head.

"You _are_," Felicity insisted. "A good person who sometimes makes bad decisions… and sure, those bad decisions tend to have more of a cataclysmic effect than the average good person… but your soul is good, Oliver. And don't you dare try to tell me otherwise. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have trusted you."

"Do you ever…." Oliver paused, hesitating. He looked down at her scar, frowning at it. "Do you ever wish you hadn't agreed to help me? I know… you've sacrificed more than I ever wanted you to… you and Diggle."

Felicity placed her hand over his. Oliver looked up. "_Never_," she told him, her voice firm.

Oliver breathed a little sigh of relief, nodding at her words. Felicity watched him struggle within himself, and she knew that he wanted to say something else, but couldn't quite figure out how to say it.

Instead, she simply let Oliver go back to work, his hands gently working on the wound, trusting him not to cause her pain.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **You guys. I never update this much. Like, this is the first fic of mine to ever make it beyond two chapters. So exciting. Also, it is slowly finding a plot. Also, it's probably going to start deviating from Arrow's actual plot. Also, this is unbeta'd, so any mistakes are completely mine.

**Disclaimer: **_"Oliver," he said quietly. "If you're anything like me, you've been going through contingency plans in your head from the moment we crash-landed."_ - this bit of dialogue was taken from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Nothing Personal."

CHAPTER FIVE

Oliver watched the dwindling fire, absently poking at it with a stick, moving around the kindling. The fire was so close to distinguishing that it didn't matter what where he moved the pieces. When he had been alone on the island, this was the part that he dreaded the most… right before the fire went out, the uncertainty of having to trust the darkness.

It still stuck with him, even now. His sleep was always irregular… the slightest sound startled him awake, activating his senses into overdrive.

Felicity had fallen asleep shortly after her stitches had been completely removed, curled up in the hammock furthest away from the entrance of the cave, huddled under a blanket and a sleeping bag.

Diggle was still up. Diggle was almost just as fitful as he was in his sleep. The two of them had reached an unspoken agreement on the first night to sleep in shifts, but more often than not, ended up keeping each other company.

Oliver appreciated that Diggle was just as comfortable sitting in silence as he was. Diggle only spoke when he had something to say, so it hadn't

_really _surprised Oliver that he was full of his own secrets.

"Listen, Digg…" Oliver began awkwardly, his whispered voice still sounding loud in the stillness of the night. "About Lyla…"

"Oliver," Diggle said abruptly, cutting him off. "I do _not _want to know. Seriously. I fight enough with Lyla over her involvement with A.R.G.U.S… I definitely, _definitely _do not want to know _anything _about how she and you know each other. Understood?"

Oliver shifted uncomfortably on the crate he was using as a makeshift chair. He felt like he owed Diggle the truth, and Diggle's adamancy to remain in the dark about the whole thing startled him… but relieved him at the same time.

Before he could make up his mind on what to do, however, Diggle changed the subject.

"Oliver," he said quietly. "If you're anything like me, you've been going through contingency plans in your head from the moment we crash-landed."

Oliver sighed. Diggle was right. And he had, on more than one occasion, caught Diggle doing the same. His eyes darting around as they hiked the island, memorizing the safest routes, scanning the horizon… formulating an escape.

"Best case scenario?" Oliver said after a moment, already knowing that Diggle would have the same one. "Carly has figured out your missing. She's alerted Lance. Someone from Queen Consolidated has realized that Felicity hasn't been reporting to work, and they've got him looking on her disappearance, too. The Detective is good. He'll figure out that you and Felicity disappearing isn't coincidental… he'll trace your tracks-"

Diggle interrupted him, shaking his head. "No, he won't. Felicity didn't leave any trail-"

Oliver inwardly cursed. _Of course_ Felicity wouldn't leave a trail.

"Then we wait for some fishermen to stumble across Lian Yu," he continued. "But since monsoon season's about to start… traffic will be minimal for the next couple months."

"And the worst case scenario?" Diggle asked.

Oliver thought Diggle probably already knew his answer to this, too.

"I cut a deal with A.R.G.U.S. to get you and Felicity off the island, back to Starling City… unharmed," he told him, his voice firm.

"A.R.G.U.S. doesn't negotiate," Diggle said.

"They will for me," Oliver said flatly.

Diggle shook his head. "You're planning on giving yourself up, aren't you? Our safety for your service."

"If it comes to that, yes."

Oliver braced himself for Diggle's indignation.

"And you'd really do that? Disappear forever?" Diggle asked, his voice rising in disbelief. "Leave the city to certain corruption? You'd leave Laurel? _Thea_?"

"If it means getting the two of you out of here? In a heartbeat."

"Felicity will never let that happen,"

"She doesn't have a say in the matter."

"Oliver," Diggle said, in his _I'm trying to be patient_ voice. Oliver hated that voice.

"The girl traveled halfway around the world to find you when it was clear you didn't want to be found. She's not going to let you give yourself up to A.R.G.U.S. without a fight. Hell, she'll probably insist on going with you."

Oliver drew in a quick breath, closing his eyes. The image of Felicity working for A.R.G.U.S. was like a sucker punch to the gut.

"You won't let that happen," he said simply, his voice quiet but certain.

Diggle was silent for a long moment, and Oliver waited for him to drop the other scenario. The one he had pledged to avoid at all cost.

"There's another scenario you haven't brought up," he said at last.

Oliver shook his head. "It won't come to that, Digg."

"Let's say that it does," Diggle pressed on, ignoring him. "Say we both die protecting her. And she's stranded on this island… with limited survival skills, and no combat skills other than very basic self-defense."

"No," Oliver said firmly, already knowing what Diggle was going to suggest."

"'Come on, Oliver," Diggle said empathetically. "It wouldn't hurt to have one more person who can fight on our side."

"I said _no_. I'm not putting her in the position where she has to make a decision to let someone live or die."

"Oliver," Diggle said slowly, after a moments pause. "She made that decision the moment she agreed to help you."

Oliver stiffened. The moment he saw Felicity lying on the beach of Lian Yu, injured, he had made a promise to himself that he wouldn't let her turn into him.

Diggle was right, though. He had made Felicity make that decision the moment he asked her for help.

Diggle stood up, walking from his post at the entrance to sit next to him at the fire.

"I'm not going to make you choose, you know," Diggle told him,.

Oliver stared at him."What?"

"When it comes to having to make the choice," Diggle clarified. "Between saving me or saving Felicity. You'll save Felicity."

"I-"

Diggle let out a soft laugh, shaking his head. "Don't tell me you haven't thought about it, Oliver," he said sternly. "We both know you'll be forced with this choice, eventually. And when you are, you'll choose Felicity."

"I won't-" Oliver started.

"You _will_," Diggle insisted. "Promise me, Oliver."

He was undeserving of Diggle. Oliver wanted to tell him this. He was un-deserving of all the people who had died because of him. His father. Sara. Shado. Tommy. He didn't want Diggle to be added to the list.

He wanted to tell Diggle that it wouldn't come to that, that he'd figure out a way to save them both. But Diggle had made sacrifices before, and he would know it was a false promise.

Oliver owed him a real one.

"I promise," he whispered, hating himself, not even sure Diggle had heard it.

"Good," Diggle said, nodding once. "And tomorrow, we'll start training."

Oliver sighed.

He really was undeserving of a friend like Diggle.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: ** Thank you for all the reviews and follows and favorites. You are all lovely.

Did I mention this is slow burn?

All mistakes are still mine.

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Felicity was trying _really _hard not to hit Oliver. For one thing, the man was built like the freaking statue of David, except with _more _muscle. For another, she was pretty sure that Oliver would just stand there stoically and let her, which completely defeated the purpose. And she would probably hurt her hands. Felicity had never wanted to hit anyone before. Sure, there was that one time in high school when her teacher had given her an F on a paper because he thought she had plagiarized… but even then, her feelings hadn't been so… violent.

The logical part of her knew it was because the stress of everything was finally getting to her, that she was nearing a mental breakdown… she hadn't been near a computer in _two weeks_. Being in front of a computer was her happy place. But now, she was stranded on an island whose name literally translated into the word Purgatory, with no hope of being rescued in the foreseeable future.

It had been raining for the past three days. It was like the sky had opened up and covered Lian Yu in angry, violent thunderstorms that brought down trees and made them temporarily relocate into an old, crashed airplane hanger that gave Felicity a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.

And to top it off, she was just as horrible in physical fitness as she was in elementary school gym class.

"Again," Oliver repeated from behind her.

Felicity tightened her grip of the bow. She drew in a breath, aimed at the tree, and exhaled as she drew back the string, letting it loose.

Predictably, the arrow flew into the air, missing the tree.

"Agai-"

Felicity threw the quiver onto the ground and whirled around.

"If you say that word again," Felicity growled, steeling her eyes on him. "I swear on all that is holy, I will shove this bow up your ass."

Oliver took a step back.

She shoved the bow in his hands and stormed past him, trying to get control of her breathing, which was coming in and out in short hiccups. She couldn't afford to get upset out in the open. The island was littered with booby-traps and land minds, and she'd been on it long enough to know that she needed to use all of her senses to get back to the hanger in one piece.

"Don't you dare follow me," she turned around, hearing Oliver's quiet footsteps trailing her.

"Felicity-"

Felicity let out a frustrated sigh. "I just need to take a breath." She said, a little more gently. "I'm going back to the hanger. Digg's there."

The unspoken words hung between them. _A breath from you_.

Oliver's face remained expressionless, as always… but Felicity could see in his eyes that she was hurting him… confusing him. She had never pushed him away before. In fact, it was usually the opposite.

_Good_, Felicity thought bitterly, unable to help herself. _Now he'll know how it feels._

He was also torn. Oliver had made it clear that he didn't want Felicity to go anywhere alone on the island. And at first, Felicity had thought his protectiveness to be endearing. Now… especially now that she was doing so miserably with her training… she found it suffocating.

"Oliver," Felicity said finally, when he hadn't made a move to retreat. "I am not asking for your permission. I am going back to the hanger alone. Just give me an hour. Then you can come and check up on me. If I'm not there, feel free to begin a search party."

Oliver sighed. "I won't follow you," he promised. "Just… be careful. _Please_."

"I'll be careful," Felicity told him.

Oliver gave her a short nod, turned around, and walked away.

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A light drizzle began to fall as she approached the hanger, and she broke into a run, knowing that the rest of the path was void of land minds and booby-traps.

She knocked once, then twice, then three times… a knock Oliver made them use to announce their presence. She and Diggle started doing it to humor him and his paranoia, and it had become a habit.

"Is everything okay?" Diggle asked immediately, after Oliver didn't come in behind her. "Where's Oliver?"

"Taking a breather," Felicity said shortly, stalking past him towards the crate that they had turned into a makeshift cooler.

Diggle raised an eyebrow. "And he let you go by yourself?"

"I don't need his permission to do anything," Felicity snapped, grabbing a canteen of water. "Or yours."

Diggle held up his hands in mock surrender. "Don't shoot the bystander."

Felicity scoffed at him. "You're not an innocent bystander," she shot back at him angrily. "You're just as bad as Oliver. I swear, the pair of you… you want me to become stronger, _to be like you_, but you treat me like I'm a five year old kid who needs a chaperone to go to the bathroom."

Felicity let out a frustrated breath. "I don't know what I did in a previous life, but The Powers That Be have a horrible sense of humor, sticking me with the two of you."

"I thank The Powers That Be every day for sticking us with you," Diggle said calmly.

It was, of course, exactly what Felicity needed to hear. All of the anger inside of her popped like a needle to a balloon. She took a deep breath in, letting it out slowly.

"Damnit," she muttered, shaking her head as she let him engulf her in a bear hug. "I wanted to be mad for a little bit longer."

Diggle chuckled, kissing the top of her forehead as they separated. "You can still vent," he offered. "I know you've been frustrated."

Felicity sighed, hopping onto her hammock.

"There's a reason people like me work with computers," she said timidly. "I was always the girl picked last in gym class. And yeah, it sucked, but it just made me accept the fact sports were not my thing. And it didn't _really _matter. Not until now, where my life is suddenly on the line because I can't shoot a damn tree with a bow and arrow, and I can't run as fast as the two of you without tripping over my two feet… and I just feel so _useless_. The weakest link."

Diggle shook his head. "Felicity… if Oliver and I are being overprotective, it's not because we believe you're the weakest link," he told her sincerely. "We're being overprotective because we can't risk losing you. I know you don't see it… but you're stronger than both of us. Without you, Oliver would still be wallowing in his grief and guilt, alone on this island. And I would have found some other spoiled rich kid to play bodyguard to."

Felicity smiled softly at his words. "Still doesn't change the fact that I can't shoot the tree. Even with all the slapping water," she mumbled.

"You _can,_" Diggle insisted. "You're just-"

"Thinking too much," Felicity said, mimicking Oliver. "I can't help it, Digg. I'm a thinking person. My brain thinks things. You don't even want to know what my brain thinks about… did that sound as dirty to you as it did in my head just now?"

"When you're aiming for the tree," Diggle said, ignoring her. "You're not thinking about hitting the tree. You're too worried about what Oliver will think of you, if you miss the tree."

Felicity's stomach flipped. Diggle was right. _Why _was Diggle _always _right?

He knew about her crush on Oliver, of course. She hadn't told him outright, but her word vomit made it pretty obvious, and Diggle was Diggle... he stood by silently and watched, constantly observant of everything around him. He never brought it up, because he knew, just as she did, that it was painfully, obviously, unrequited.

"I can't help that, either, John," she whispered, looking down at her hands.

"I know," he said, his voice full of sympathy. "What's so amazing to me, though, is that you don't see how much Oliver worries over what _you _think of _him_."

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	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: ** Thank you for sticking with me through all the angst. Action is coming, I promise. Oliver and Felicity have to sort out their angsty feelings. Also, good news—I have written the last scene of this story. It's looking like it'll have a sequel, folks.

**Side note:** Sorry for the delay. I meant to post it last night. But there was the world cup. I may or may not have been over-served.

Still un-beta'd. Any mistakes are mine.

CHAPTER SIX

(erm. i know says that its chapter 7. it made my little interlude a chapter and screwed everything up. sorry!)

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"_A good person who sometimes makes bad decisions. And sure.. those decisions tend to have a more cataclysmic effect than the average person… but your soul is good." _

Oliver grunted, heaving his body over the branch he had placed in between two trees to use as a makeshift salmon ladder.

He hung in the air, mulling over Felicity's words.

She was mad at him, had been for a few days, really… and he couldn't stand it. He also had no idea what to do about it.

So he had chosen to try to ignore it. Which was a stupid plan… they had been confined in the airplane hanger for the past three days, with poor Diggle walking on glass between the pair of them.

And now she was in danger, walking back to the hanger by herself, all because of him.

Always because of him. She was stuck on the island _because of him_. A brand new scar stretched across her right thigh, _because of him_. And now she was angry with him.

He knew she was getting the short end of the deal. He wasn't as patient as Yao Fei or Shado had been when they had taught him. He still couldn't bring himself to train her in hand-to-hand combat; he had left that particular skill up to Digg. The thought of hitting Felicity… of Felicity getting injured… it bothered him more than he cared to admit.

He was selfish with her, he knew that too. Their entire relationship began when he took advantage of who he was to flirt with her, knowingly placing her in harms way. He could have ended it after she had given him the information he needed, but he kept coming back to her.

Oliver jumped off the makeshift salmon ladder, steading himself as he landed, and reached into his pocket, fumbling for picture he crumpled picture he carried with him everywhere.

He unfolded it, and almost immediately the corners of his lips turned upwards into a smile. He let out a small sigh, rubbing his thumb over the picture in a vain attempt to get the wrinkles out.

It was the only picture of the three of them… sitting in a booth at Big Belly Burger. Diggle was on one side, looking amused. Felicity had just blurted out something awkward about his body, and was blushing a deep shade of red. And he… he was staring at Felicity, smiling.

Carly had snapped it without them knowing with her phone, and printed out a copy to give to Diggle. When Diggle had shown it to him the following day, Oliver made him swear not to show Felicity.

He had, selfishly, wanted the memory of that moment for himself.

When he had begun packing with the intention of going back to the island, he automatically reached for Laurel's picture… the picture that had gotten him through five years of hell. It had been his beacon of light.

But, when he looked at it, he thought of Tommy, of the Glades… of all the people he had failed. And so he had shoved the picture into his desk drawer, reaching for the one of Diggle and Felicity instead.

More often than not, though, when he brought the picture out to remind himself of all the good in the world… he wasn't paying much attention to Diggle.

He was looking at Felicity.

His mind drifted back to a conversation he had with Digg, the first night they were on Lian Yu. He had pulled out the picture after Felicity had fallen asleep.

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"_Laurel?"_

_Oliver looked up, startled. _

"_I thought you were asleep," he said gruffly, his eyes squinting in the dim light from the fire. _

_Diggle shrugged. "I don't sleep much."_

_Oliver didn't say anything. That bit of information wasn't altogether unsurprising. _

"_So…" Digg pressed. "Laurel?"_

_Oliver shook his head, reaching across the space between them to hand him the photograph. _

"_Man…" Diggle said with a chuckle. "Please tell me you haven't been staring at my ugly face for the past month."_

"_Not exactly," Oliver assured him. _

_Silence stretched between them as Oliver waited for a response. _

"_When we figured out where you had gone," Diggle finally said slowly. "She didn't talk for a week. We kept coming to the foundry out of habit. I would work out, she would try to find you. When she found you… and realized where you had gone… that you had bought a one-way ticket… she just… broke down. She threw the computer."_

_Oliver closed his eyes. "I shouldn't have left," he whispered. _

"_I get it, Oliver," Diggle told him. "Probably better than anyone else. You needed time. But Felicity… everyone she's ever loved has left her."_

"_Felicity doesn't-" _

"_Come on, man," Diggle said, cutting him off. "Of course she does. You're not that much of an idiot." _

"_I thought…" he fumbled. "I thought it was just a crush. She likes watching me do the salmon ladder. That's all."_

_He felt something unpleasant in his stomach, and frowned. _

"_It seriously amazes me that you've been with so many women," Diggle told him, shaking his head. _

"_I'm good at getting them," Oliver confessed. "But not so good at keeping them."_

_He thought about it. "Actually… Felicity's the first girl I haven't tried to sleep with."_

"_Felicity's not the kind of girl you conquer," Diggle said pointedly. "Oliver… if you're thoughts are turning towards the non-platonic kind… do us all a favor. Hold off until you're certain, all right? Because I swear to god, if you go for it while we're stranded here, and then dump her for another round with Laurel when we get rescued… I'm going to find a way to kick your ass." _

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Oliver promised.

It had bothered him that Diggle thought so lowly of him, but he couldn't really blame him. All the roads _did _go back to Laurel. At least, they used to.

Now, Oliver wasn't so sure.

Because Oliver was Oliver, and The Powers That Be enjoyed forcing him to make impossible choices, not a single day passed where he didn't try to imagine what it would be like to _not _have her in his life. Oliver thought about losing Felicity. What he would be willing to sacrifice, to keep Felicity alive. To keep her safe.

The answer was always the same.

There was nothing he wouldn't do to keep her safe.

He wasn't sure what it meant, but he knew he owed it to Felicity to try to figure it out.


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